


Life Is Good

by Houseofmalfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Age Difference, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, HP Fluff Fest 2020, Kid Fic, Narcissa Black Malfoy-centric, Post-Second War with Voldemort, Summer, Swimming Pools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25976821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Houseofmalfoy/pseuds/Houseofmalfoy
Summary: Narcissa surprises herself with the number of times she thinks that little sentence, surprises herself with how genuinely happy she is with the way her life turned out, even if she’s no longer surprised at all by the person who gave it to her.She’s happy.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Narcissa Black Malfoy
Comments: 3
Kudos: 118
Collections: HP Fluff Fest 2020





	Life Is Good

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the HP fluff fest on tumblr, based on a prompt about summer and a pool at home! Thank you so much to my beta, and to the mods of the fest for running this.

Life is good. 

Narcissa surprises herself with the number of times she thinks that little sentence, surprises herself with how genuinely happy she is with the way her life turned out, even if she’s no longer surprised at all by the person who gave it to her. 

She’s happy. 

She’s been happy before, but though Narcissa supposes it’s a cliche thing to say about one’s current partner, she doesn’t think she’s ever been  _ happy  _ quite like this before she met Hermione Granger. Something about the younger witch, not to mention her beautiful little girl that was two when Narcissa first met her and is now eight years old and brighter than she could have pictured a child being, makes Narcissa happy in a way she can’t recall being before. 

Narcissa is sitting at the edge of their pool outside, her feet dangling in the water as she watches Hermione in the middle of the pool on a floating chair with a book that she’s charmed to be water-resistant. It’s a good thing she did, for eight-year-old Rose Granger-Weasley has made it her goal of the day to perfect her art of jumping into the water with as big a splash as she can make. 

Rose’s current theory is that the longer she runs towards the water, the better, so Narcissa watches her as she takes her time walking further and further away from the pool to the edge of the garden. She’s sure the girl will tire herself out running before she reaches the water, but she’ll let Rose figure that one out on her own. She’s clever enough not to make the same mistake twice in this game. 

“Incoming,” Narcissa warns her wife, purposefully a tad too late for Hermione to prepare herself for the water showering over her and her book when their daughter launches herself in the pool with an exhausted but happy grin on her face. Rose was entirely out of breath, swimming back to the edge of the pool immediately so she could clutch the stone and Narcissa’s leg so as to not have to hold herself up any longer. 

Hermione, laughing at the two of them after making sure Rose couldn’t see the rude gesture she sent Narcissa’s way, comments that Rose’s jump had been marvellous before she returns to her book. Narcissa purses her lips in an amused smile that turns into bright laughter when she lifts Rose out of the water and is met with a bush of drenched curls shoved into her face as the girl hugs her. 

Life is good. 

If you’d asked Narcissa where she saw herself ending up happy at any point in her life, this would not have been her answer. 

As a teenager she might have told you it would be at the arm of Rabastan Lestrange, four or five kids with them, on top of pureblood society; at nineteen she’d have said without a shadow of a doubt that it would be with Lucius and the three children she’d give him, on top of pureblood society, and the older she got the more her answer would start to shift into anything at all that made her son happy. 

Never would she have expected to find such genuine happiness in meeting a single mother and her then two-year-old daughter after she’d divorced the man who’d been supposed to be her perfect fairytale ending, once upon a time.

Lucius hadn’t been her happy ending, though Narcissa had loved him enormously throughout the majority of their marriage. Today, she wants to believe with all she has that Hermione Granger and Rose Granger-Weasley might be exactly that. 

It’s been six years since she and Hermione had been reintroduced. At the time, eight years after the war had ended, they’d both been recently divorced, and never would Narcissa have imagined that the conversations over tea that had started out as nothing but a mutual understanding that even an amicable divorce could weigh heavy on one’s heart would turn into the marriage they’d build since then. 

Narcissa has always adored children; for the longest time, she’d wished she and Lucius would have been able to have more of them. Rose might not be her own flesh and blood, and Narcissa did not get along perfectly with the girl’s father by any means, but the first time she’d called Narcissa ‘mama’ tears had welled up in her eyes. 

Rose, seemingly recovered from her earlier run, pushes herself away from the edge of the pool again. She tugs on Narcissa’s leg, a playful grin on her face, quietly demanding she join her daughter in the water. 

Narcissa pretends to consider it for a moment until Rose brings out an exasperated “mama, come on!” with an impatience that she knows she had passed on to her daughter herself, and she slides from the stone edge of the pool into the water with a carefree smile. It’s freezing, initially, albeit a welcome change from the burning heat. Narcissa smiles through the shivers running down her body when Rose tries a backflip in the water, grinning so proudly back at her that Narcissa has no choice but to applaud. 

Twenty minutes later Rose says she’s gotten bored of swimming — refusing to admit that perhaps she’s tired herself out in all her exercise — and has traded the water for laying in the grass closer to the house. Narcissa made sure to cast a sun-protective charm over her, despite Hermione’s insistence that regular sunblock works so much better. 

Hermione’s given up on the book that now levitates above the water. When Narcissa makes her way over to her wife, the younger witch gets off of the inflatable chair for what has to be the first time in hours. She smiles, looking over at Rose with the natural pride of a mother that Narcissa recognises so well, and gently comes up behind Narcissa, holding her waist.

They’ve both had their fair share of struggles throughout their lives; war, trauma, and heartbreak, that has paved the path to where they find themselves now. No lies are told by the horrible word scarred on Hermione’s lower arm and the many scars adorning Narcissa’s own body that she covers with glamour charms even in the privacy of her own home.

What they’ve found now, though, feels like it makes up for enough of that pain. 

Rose is growing up to be a beautiful and strong witch, Hermione’s career is her pride and joy and Narcissa can’t possibly be anything but immensely proud when she watches her wife be her ambitious and determined self. The life they’ve built, just the three, and sometimes two, of them, is a beautiful one. 

Narcissa, her back pressed against Hermione’s chest, follows her wife’s gaze to the little girl sunbathing on the grass near the terrace. Hermione’s arms are strong around her middle, scarred more than they used to be from the work she does for the Department of Mysteries, and Narcissa doesn’t think there’s a place in the world she could feel safer. 

It hasn’t always been, but with the heat of the sun on her shoulders and Hermione kissing her cheek so lovingly, there’s no denying that Narcissa has every reason in the world to simply repeat it to herself for the umpteenth time.  _ Life is good. _

**Author's Note:**

> 🌻 This work is part of Fluff Fest, a Harry Potter-centered fest dedicated to fluffy themes, meet cutes and wholesome vibes.
> 
> If you’ve enjoyed this work, please show love and support to our precious content creators by leaving kudos and comments! 💌
> 
> [Feel free to check out the fest's tumblr for more updates. ](https://hpfluff-fest.tumblr.com/)


End file.
